Over the last few years, many leisure-time vehicles such as cabriolets or roadsters have gained increasing popularity among the populace. These vehicles do not have a fixed top, but rather, only a manually or automatically unfolding fabric roof for the protection of riders during inclement weather. During the cold season, in the fall and winter, the insufficient heat insulation characteristics of the fabric top become however noticeable, so that such vehicles are only conditionally usable year-round. Furthermore, the fabric top is usually provided with simple, unheated plastic hear windows which do not ensure the necessary clear vision to the rear in the fall or winter.
The manufacturers of cabriolets and roadsters therefore offer so-called hard-tops for their vehicles. These are for the most part tops made of plastic or light metal which are often equipped with a heated rear window and are lined on the inside with a fabric ceiling. Such a hard-top is attached on the vehicle and provides the insulation and comfort of a limousine in winter. During the warm season, the hard-top is however not needed and must therefore be stored, usually in a garage or in a cellar.
Normally, at least two attachment pins extend downward out of the hard-top and are used to attach the hard-top to the body of the cabriolet or the roadster. Holding devices to store a hard-top are known, using these protruding attachment pins to attach the hard-top in the holding device. Since hard-tops are relatively heavy, weighing from about 25 kg to about 45 kg, depending on the design, the known holding devices have a metal frame on which the two attachment pins of the hard-top can be attached. Furthermore, the holding device is usually provided with suitable fastening devices by means of which the overall unit consisting of holding device and the hard-top attached therein can be mounted to the wall or the ceiling of a room. In some cases, a separate fabric cover is provided as a dust protection and can be pulled over the metal frame and the hard-top attached therein. The hard-top can therefore be suspended by means of the metal frame on the wall or on the ceiling or, if the metal frame is provided with an additional stand, can be placed upright on the floor for storage. The overall arrangement consisting of metal frame and hard-top however becomes often so heavy that several manufacturers offer in addition a rolling table for easy transportation of the hard-top.
Hard-tops with no such attachment pins are also known. The hard-top of the British roadster MG-F for example, snaps into a kind of groove in the vehicle body and is attached by means of levers located above the hard-top. The support of these hard-tops is also effected by means of a usually rolling metal frame in which the hard-top, if necessary provided with a protective cover, can be placed.
In German utility model no. DE 94 09 349 U1, a lifting device for the hard-top of a motor vehicle is described. The lifting device has belts, one end of each of which is connected to a motor-driven belt roller. The free end of each belt has hooks which are applied to the rear or forward edge of the hard-top.
German patent application no. DE 42 38 346 A1 describes a device to store the hard-top of a cabriolets on a garage ceiling, which is provided with a motor-driven lifting device of the type described in DE 94 09 349 U1 (discussed above) and in addition comprises a storage box which can be attached to the ceiling and is open on the bottom.
In German utility model no. DE 90 11 895 U1, a device to attach a bicycle to a wall is described. The device has a band for stabilizing the bicycle. The band has a holding ring which can be connected to a hook fastened into the wall. The weight of the bicycle rests on a rail which is connected to the wall. This device is not suitable to store hard-tops.
The known holding devices for hard-tops have many disadvantages. Overall, they are very heavy and mounting the hard-top in the frame and attaching the frame to the wall or the ceiling of a room is often very complicated. Furthermore such designs are very expensive and cost usually about 10% to about 20% of the price of the hard-top itself. Such designs are therefore not sold directly together with the hard-top but are offered as a separate additional equipment.